Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Morning all. It's hard to write up match previews for these friendlies because there isn't shite for news before them. You can't find starting lineups, you can't find anything on the other team, and the manager doesn't speak before them. But we're going to throw one out here anyway because I'm just that nice.

Today's game could possibly bring about the debut of Mr. Samir Nasri, who I am very excited about seeing. He just got into training yesterday so I can't be sure that he'll play but I would think he'll get some amount of time today. Depending on his injury status we could also get to see Carlos Vela make his friendly debut. I think it'd be cool to see Nasri on one wing and Vela on the other today at the same time. That would be an exciting combination. I think they both primarily play on the left though so that may not happen, along with the fact that Arsene Wenger said Vela is more of an Eduardo type forward than a winger.

The rest of the squad is also back in training (not sure about Cesc), so we could also see the return of Robin van Persie, Phillippe Senderos, Emmanuel Adebayor, William Gallas and others. Cesc I think might have gotten a longer break because Spain going so far in the Euros, and I'm not sure what Adebayor's status is really.

I'd expect the lineups to be stronger overall than against Barnet but I think it'll probably be a game of two completely different halves again, since Arsene won't want to work the players for a full 90 minutes yet. I think Aaron Ramsey should get some more good playing time, which is good for him and us, because he's fun to watch.Pat Rice spoke about the preseason in Austria and explained why Arsenal go to Austria instead of going on a long summer tour:

"What happens is whenever we get there, we have a block of about nine days," explained assistant manager Pat Rice earlier this summer.

"Obviously that is interspersed with a few games but this is when we can get some good, hard pre-season training into the players which will help them and make sure they are in good shape for all of the season. Not just the start of the season but the whole campaign.

"Some managers think there is no problem with that [long-distance summer tours] but we are not one of the clubs who go down that route.

"Our Austria training camp has proved very successful for us for the coming seasons because we have always been in the top four and we think the preparations we get there is good for our young players."

Thanks Pat for that quality information. If you want more information on Szombathelyiyou can find out here.

And that's about it. That's probably the worst match preview I've ever written but I'm sorry there's really not much information about the match ahead of time. I'll go out on a limb and pick 3-0 to the Arsenal. Time to go watch the match. Cheers.